Place Briefing #4
Learning and Place, Placemaking ideas, Nature-based solutions, Urban25 Academy courses, Quality of Life Index
Here is the latest collection of short notices about reports, guidance notes, conferences and webinars relevant to ideas for making better places from Policies for Places. I hope you will find something of interest to follow up.
Learning neighbourhoods
This up-coming conference looks like a it could be of interest to those with an interest in community learning and learning neighbourhoods as a basis for sustainable development. There is still time to submit an abstract and/or to register. This is an international conference which should attract participants from many parts of the world including India and South-East Asia.
All details on the conference website here.
Placemaking ideas
Here is a new guide from World Bank which offers a practical guide to bring into use back underused or overlooked public spaces into use in order to create vibrant, inclusive and sustainable places. It recognizes that placemaking goes beyond urban design and is about creating spaces with and for communities, reflecting local identity, building social ties, and improving quality of life.
It provides a step-by-step framework for taking forward placemaking initiatives and draws on case studies at all levels from informal neighborhoods to city centre projects from participating cities in the World Bank’s City Partnership programme.
Making Peace with Nature
This report is a call to action on addressing the challenges presented by the integration of climate change and biodiversity in cities and more widely.
It explores several key strategies including the development of nature-based solutions to enhance climate resilience, urban greening and smart cities, the circular economy to reduce waste and promote sustainable consumption and strengthening governance to encourage cross sector collaboration.
Access report here
Urban Planning
This new course by Urban95 Academy is a fully-funded executive education programme by LSE Cities & the Van Leer Foundation, aimed at helping city leaders rethink urban spaces for young children and their caregivers.
Led by prominent urban experts, participants can develop an action plan for their city.
Cities represented on the course will be able to join a world-wide network of almost 300 cities, and what’s more, 10 cities will get an all-expenses paid week in London!
Introductory webinar on 1 April.
Quality of Life Index
UN-Habitat’s Quality of Life Index enriches how we measure urban well-being moving beyond economic metrics to capture what truly matters to people. The Index merges both objective and subjective data to provide a more complete picture of urban quality of life.
This report explains what the Index is, how it has been developed and why it matters for cities. There is a guide as to how it might be used by municipalities to refine their policy initiatives.
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There is a lot of reading here. Some of these reports are quite substantial but I hope there is material of use to readers.
Place Briefing is intended to provide access to current or recent material on topics relevant to making places better. Please message me if there are particular topics you would like to see featured here.